No. 6 St. Mary's rolls by No. 8 Southern, 81-37

The Saints went onto the floor against Southern of Anne Arundel yesterday expecting a struggle befitting Nos. 6 and 8 teams.

What the sixth-ranked Saints got was an 81-37 blowout that raised their record to 3-2 and sent their confidence soaring.

Is St. Mary's this good?

"I hope so," Dobson said, smiling. "We have the capability of playing this well all the time, if we can just get the kids to come out with their heads in the game."

Dobson wanted to make it clear that "Southern is a good team" and that the rout was triggered in part by 16 unanswered points in the second quarter that propelled St. Mary's into 43-14 command.

"We couldn't miss in the first half," Dobson said.

It was during St. Mary's 16-point run that Southern coach Linda Kilpatrick elected to play the game under protest because referee Al Behrendt assessed her a technical foul.

The technical presumably was for unsportsmanlike conduct, complaining too loudly about calls, or leaving the coach's box. Kilpatrick wasn't sure because Behrendt wouldn't tell her. After the game, he also refused to explain his decision.

"There is no box marked on the floor by the visitors' bench, so how can you tell if a coach is out?" Kilpatrick said. "I protested because I think there was a misinterpretation of the rules."

Kilpatrick was not thrilled with the officiating, especially in the first half.

"We missed a lot of easy opportunities, true, and you can't get 10 points behind a team like St. Mary's because it's so hard to play catch-up," Kilpatrick said. "But the kids need to know they have a chance, and not playing against seven men. At halftime it was tough to explain to them why we had 13 fouls called on us to their two."

Before the game, Kilpatrick said she wasn't sure what to think of her team because it had breezed to two opening victories over out-of-county teams.

"This is our first real test," she said.

The Bulldogs (2-1) did not grade well as they lost to the Saints for the fifth consecutive time. St. Mary's dominated, leading 52-20 at halftime and 75-27 after three quarters. Subs on both teams played the entire fourth quarter.